The next morning, Leo and Chloe drove in heavy silence to Evelyn’s remote cottage. The heavy velvet lockbox sat on the space between their seats like a ticking time bomb. Leo’s hands shook on the steering wheel as he pulled into the gravel driveway.
When they stepped inside and placed the box on the wooden table, Evelyn greeted them with her usual warm smile. But the moment Leo slid the 1965 police report across the table next to the jewels, the temperature in the room seemed to drop to freezing.
Evelyn didn’t cry. She didn’t even deny it. Instead, the sweet, fragile old lady facade completely dropped away, replaced by a cold, bitter sneer that Leo had never seen before. “They deserved it. They showed me no mercy when I worked for them, did they?” Evelyn whispered viciously, looking directly at Chloe.